Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Forest Service

Plaintiffs-Appellants Natural Resources Defense Council, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, The Wilderness Society, and Center for Biological Diversity (collectively “NRDC”) appeal the district court’s final judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and certain government employees acting in their official capacity, dismissing ad ministrative and environmental law challenges to the 1997 Revision to the Tongass Land Management Plan (Plan). We must decide the legality of the Plan adopted and the process used by the Forest Service.

NRDC claims that a Forest Service error that doubled the projected market demand for Tongass timber rendered the Plan for the Tongass National Forest arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706 (2)(A), and rendered arbitrary and capricious the Forest Service’s conclusion that timber goals justified the risk that the Plan may not ensure viable, well-distributed populations of wildlife, as required by former 36 C.F.R. § 219.19 (2000). NRDC also claims that the market-demand error rendered…